Jackson Hole Underground

When the filing period for the 2008 election closed last month, I was surprised to find no one challenging Mayor Mark Barron.

Fawning profiles in the local media nonwithstanding, there has been a lot of grumbling about Barron on barstools and coffee counters, owing mostly to the new parking garage and the rapidly changing face of downtown.

Another lawmaker ripe for a challenge is state Rep. Keith Gingery, a Republican who owes his election in 2004 to GOP gerrymandering. Gingery has rankled his constituency in Jackson by sponsoring abortion bills and his flip-flop on a secrecy bill that made correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists off-limits to the public.

I wasn’t surprised to find him running unopposed because the Wyoming Legislature is an unpaid job that requires a lot of travel around the state and spending several weeks in Cheyenne each winter.

Should either of these pols be coasting to another term?

We who feel the issues merit more rigorous debate than a fill-in-the-blanks questionnaire from the local papers have another option: a write-in campaign.

It is remarkably easy to get a write-in candidate on the general election ballot for November, when turnout is expected to be high for the presidential race.

To challenge Mark Barron for mayor, a person would need to receive just three write-in votes during the Aug. 19 primary. To challenge Keith Gingery, a candidate would need 25 write-in votes.

The opportunity exists to draft a worthy candidate by writing in him or her on the primary ballot. (That person later would have to consent by registering to run.) For the first time in recent memory, the Democratic primary has an important contested race — for county commissioner — and turnout should be high.

So who’s going to step up and press one or more of the unopposed incumbents?

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Notes:

— Keith Gingery lost Teton County to Democrat Mike Gierau in 2004 but eked out a narrow victory thanks to a landslide in Dubois, which was dubiously grouped with Jackson when voting districts were redrawn following the 2000 Census, a process overseen by Gingery’s political progenitor, state Sen. Grant Larson.

— The secrecy bill, sponsored by Larson, was vetoed by Gov. Dave Freudenthal, but Gingery, despite his earlier opposition to the legislation, voted in step with the Republican Party to overturn the veto.

— Link to Teton County election dates

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 11:58 am and is filed under politics, town government, wyoming legislature, democratic party, republican party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.